NSA - All posts tagged NSA

Fond of posting selfies? Well, those pictures could be ending up in a National Security Agency database.

That’s because the NSA doesn’t just collect emails and text messages, it’s also harvests images, according to a report in The New York Times. The controversial agency collects “millions of images per day,” including 55,000 “facial recognition” quality images,” the newspaper said, citing documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Google this week unveiled a plan that could make it harder for outsiders, including the National Security Agency, to intercept Gmail messages.

The new system involves encryption, the process of encoding messages so that they can be read only by those who are authorized read them.

“Starting today, Gmail will always use an encrypted HTTPS connection when you check or send email,” Google said in a blog post. “Today\’s change means that no one can listen in on your messages as they go back and forth between you and Gmail’s servers—no matter if you\’re using public WiFi or logging in from your computer, phone or tablet.”

Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, who exposed the secret government data-collection program run by the NSA, made an appearance Monday at the ongoing South by Southwest conference in Austin.

Snowden, who lives in exile in Russia, had video conference conversation with Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union and Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU\’s speech, privacy and technology project who is also Snowden\’s legal adviser.

The chat with the ACLU's principal technologist, Christopher Soghoian, will focus on "the impact of the NSA's spying efforts on the technology community, and the ways in which technology can help to protect us from mass surveillance."

Rovio Entertainment, creator of the popular mobile game on Tuesday said it does not work with the National Security Agency or other government agencies.

The Finland-based company was responding to news reports, based on leaked documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden, that said the NSA and its British counterpart, GCHQ, was taking advantage of weaknesses in mobile apps, including Angry Birds, to secretly collect user data.

Rovio said it “does not share data, collaborate or collude with any government spy agencies such as NSA or GCHQ anywhere in the world.”

Looks like playing Angry Birds could also attract the attention of the National Security Agency.

The Guardian newspaper, which broke the story on the massive NSA spying based on information shared by whistleblower Edward Snowden, said the NSA and its British counterpart have also been exploiting security vulnerabilities in mobile apps.

Canadian governmental agencies are trying to recruit Silicon Valley giants to build data storage facilities in the country to keep the information away from the National Security Agency, according to a published report.

The Canadian government is pitching companies such as Google
and Facebook
to store information outside the U.S. TheStar.com reported.

The National Security Agency launched a campaign to tap the intelligence-gathering potential of online gaming, such as by infiltrating virtual communities, a media report said Monday.

The NSA, together with the U.K. intelligence service GCHQ, deployed agents to play online games such as \”World of Warcraft\”, where the agencies hoped to monitor any communications among groups and individuals suspected of taking part in terrorist activities, according to a report in The Guardian. The campaign also was meant to be a way to recruit potential informants.

While National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden reportedly remains at Moscow\’s Sheremetyevo Airport, his possible destination has been thrown into a heated political debate over whether to grant him asylum.

According to WikiLeaks, which is providing support to the fugitive former employee of security contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, Snowden plans to seek safe haven in Ecuador, the same nation which has used its U.K. embassy to shield WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from extradition to Sweden for almost a year.

But Agence France-Presse reports that Ecuador’s opposition lawmakers and many of its business leaders fear taking in Snowden could jeopardize the renewal of its preferential trade agreement with the U.S., which is due to expire at the end of July.

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